What Is Order of Execution?

When a record is inserted or updated, Salesforce runs multiple processes in a fixed sequence:

● Validations
● Triggers
● Flows
● Workflow rules
● Assignment rules
● Auto-response rules
● After-commit actions

If you don’t know this order, you may:

● Set a value in trigger that gets overwritten

● Fail validations unexpectedly

● Cause recursive automation

Simplified Order of Execution (Important Steps)

For Insert / Update:

1. Load record

2. System validations

3. Before Triggers

4. Before-Save Flows

5. Custom validations

6. Save to database (not committed)

7. After Triggers

8. After-Save Flows

9. Workflow rules

10. Assignment rules

11. Auto-response rules

12. Commit to database

13. Post-commit actions (email, async jobs)

Real Example – Trigger vs Flow Conflict

Scenario

You set Status in Trigger:

trigger CaseTrigger on Case (before insert) {
    for (Case c : Trigger.new) {
        c.Status = 'New';
    }
}

But you also have a Before-Save Flow that sets:

Status = 'Open'

What Happens?

Flow runs after before trigger, so:

→ Flow overwrites trigger value.

Final Status = Open

Common Mistake

Developers say:

"My trigger is not working."

But actually:

● Trigger ran

● Flow ran after and changed value

Without knowing order of execution, debugging becomes impossible.

Another Example – Validation Rule Failure

If you have:

● Trigger populates a required field
● Validation rule checks that field

But trigger runs before validations, so this works.

However:

If flow changes field after validation, record still saves.

Understanding timing matters.

Where Apex Fits in Execution

Automation	Runs When
Before Trigger	Early
After Trigger	After save
Queueable / Future	After commit
Batch Apex	Separate transactions

So async logic never affects same transaction validations.

Debugging Tips

When debugging automation issues:

● Check Flows first
● Then triggers
● Then workflows
● Then async logic

Use Debug Logs to see:

FLOW_START_INTERVIEW
CODE_UNIT_STARTED

This shows execution sequence.

Conclusion

Order of Execution explains why data behaves the way it does in Salesforce.

Without this knowledge, even correct Apex code can produce wrong results.

Master this early — it will save you hours of debugging later.

See you in the next lesson! 👋

Apex Beginner to Advance

Salesforce Order of Execution Explained